Main Course
8665 recipes found
Aioli With Roasted Vegetables
In Provence, the garlic-infused mayonnaise called aioli is typically served with a platter of raw and boiled vegetables and sometimes fish. With its intense creamy texture and deep garlic flavor, it turns a humble meal into a spectacular one. In this recipe, an assortment of colorful roasted vegetables stand in for the raw and boiled ones. It makes a very elegant side dish to an entrée of roasted fish or meat, or can be the main event of a vegetable-focused meal. The aioli can be made up to three days ahead and stored in the refrigerator. The vegetables are best roasted right before serving.
Tangy Brisket With Ginger
Brisket in sweet-and-sour sauce is the Zelig of the kitchen. It takes on the character of whoever cooks it. In the early part of the 20th century, when ''The Settlement Cook Book'' reigned supreme in American Jewish households, recipes for savory briskets of beef with sauerkraut, cabbage or lima beans were the norm. As tastes became more exotic, cranberry or barbecue sauce, root beer, lemonade and even sake worked their way into recipes. Here, Coca-Cola is the secret ingredient, along with ginger. The result is sublime and the dish only improves if it's cooked a day in advance of serving it. However, you can prepare and serve it the same day, if you'd like, though you may want to use a fat separator to strain the fat from the finished sauce. Several readers commented that the original cooking time and temperature on the recipe (3 hours, including 1 hour uncovered, at 350 degrees) was inaccurate. We've retested and adjusted the recipe, so the brisket now cooks for 5 to 6 hours, covered, at 325 degrees. Please also note that this recipe is not kosher for Passover.
Rigatoni and Cauliflower al Forno
Cauliflower is perhaps the least appreciated member of the large family of cruciferous vegetables, no doubt due to memories of encountering it boiled, flabby and timidly seasoned, if seasoned at all. When cooked properly, it is a delight. Cauliflower can stand up to rather bold seasoning, in fact. In this recipe, it gets garlic, sage, red pepper and capers. And it is browned in olive oil, which further enhances the flavor. If you want a terrific side vegetable, just serve the sautéed cauliflower and skip the rigatoni. But combining the cauliflower with large-format pasta, pecorino cheese and bread crumbs, then baking it until crisply golden, makes for a splendid meal.
Craig Claiborne’s Smothered Chicken
Craig Claiborne was a child of Mississippi who started as food editor of The Times in 1957 and did as much as anyone to help bring home cooking into the spotlight. The dish “belongs in the ‘comfort’ category,” he wrote in 1983, “a food that gives solace to the spirit when you dine on it.” You could give your smothered chicken some European flair with mushrooms and small onions in the gravy, as Claiborne did in his experiments with Pierre Franey, then his kitchen co-pilot. Or you could send yourself south to the Creole tastes of the Delta, with a blend of tomatoes, chopped celery, onion and green peppers added to the sauce. But sometimes the easiest way is the best. Try it.
Sweet and Spicy Roast Chicken
A chile-flecked, honey-imbued marinade spiked with fresh citrus juice gives this chicken its fiery, syrupy character. Dates and carrots give the sauce texture and additional sweetness while a garnish of fresh herbs and pistachio nuts lends freshness and crunch. It’s dinner party food at its most flavorful and convenient; its honey marinade makes it a particularly wonderful main course for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. The ingredients can be assembled up to 24 hours in advance, then all you need to do is pop it in the oven just before your guests arrive, and garnish it at the last minute. Serve it with couscous, polenta, rice or another soft grain to soak up the sauce.
Summer Tacos with Corn, Green Beans and Tomatillo Salsa
Another way to use the versatile green bean in summer cooking. Cut into one-inch lengths and add to a mix of corn, chiles and green tomatillo salsa. Green beans are such a reliable and versatile summer vegetable. I serve them on their own, of course, but I also throw them into various pasta dishes and salads, and here I’ve used them in a taco filling. Cook the beans first, just until tender, then cut them into one-inch lengths and add to this sweet and spicy mix of corn, chiles and green tomatillo salsa.
Diner-Style Burgers
This is the traditional, griddled hamburger of diners and takeaway spots, smashed thin and cooked crisp on its edges. It is best to cook in a heavy, cast-iron skillet slicked with oil or fat, and not on a grill. For meat, ask a butcher for coarse-ground chuck steak, with at least a 20 percent fat content, or grind your own. Keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready to cook, and try not to handle it with your fingers — use an ice-cream scoop or spoon instead. Plop down a few ounces in the pan, smash it with a spatula, salt it, let it go crisp and flip. Add cheese and get your bun toasted. The process moves quickly.
Stir-Fried Baby Turnips With Spring Onions, Green Garlic and Tofu
The fresh ginger I’m finding at springtime farmers’ markets is new and juicy, like the spring garlic and onions. I’m sure this is going to be just one of many springtime stir-fries, but right now it’s a favorite. It’s inspired by an irresistible bunch of baby turnips I bought at a Sunday farmers’ market. The turnips were no bigger than a small round radish, but their greens were lush – I had about 6 cups of leaves after I’d stripped them from the stems. Sweet spring onions and green garlic contrast beautifully with the bitter flavor of the turnip greens.
Quinoa Salad With Roasted Carrots and Frizzled Leeks
This quinoa salad, filled with soft roasted carrots, currants and a pomegranate molasses-spiked dressing, makes enough to feed a crowd, though you can easily halve the recipe for a smaller group. You can make it with any color quinoa you come across – it comes in shades of tan (called white), rusty red and brownish black. Just don’t mix them together in one pot because they all have slightly different cooking times. As for the pomegranate molasses, it's available in specialty shops and online, but if you don’t have it, substitute a good quality balsamic vinegar spiked with a little honey if you like. You can toss together the quinoa, dressing and carrots the day before serving, but don’t add the arugula until the last minute to keep it as fresh and crisp as possible.
Chia Seed Pudding
Chia seeds are nutritionally dense seeds that will thicken any liquid you add them to. Mix them up with coconut and almond milks and you’ve got an almost instant pudding with a tapioca-like texture and gently sweet flavor. This recipe is meant for breakfast, but if you add a little honey to the seeds as they swell, it will be sweet enough for dessert. You can use either black or white chia seeds here, or a mix. The pudding will continue to thicken as it sits, so feel free to thin it out to taste with a little more almond or coconut milk before serving.
Sherried Lentil Soup With Sausage and Croutons
White Pizza
This is a pizza reimagining of the classic Roman pasta dish cacio e pepe, pasta served with only cheese and black pepper. It came to The Times from the kitchens of Roberta’s restaurant in Brooklyn, a pizzeria and lifestyle collective that occupies a number of buildings and lots in a far corner of the Bushwick neighborhood. Cream slicks the dough, and a mixture of mozzarella and tangy taleggio tops it. A shocking amount of freshly ground black pepper follows that application and, after the pizza is cooked, a shower of grated Parmesan. A drizzle of honey over the top would not be blasphemy.
Roberta’s Pizza Dough
This recipe, adapted from Roberta’s, the pizza and hipster haute-cuisine utopia in Bushwick, Brooklyn, provides a delicate, extraordinarily flavorful dough that will last in the refrigerator for up to a week. It rewards close attention to weight rather than volume in the matter of the ingredients, and asks for a mixture of finely ground Italian pizza flour (designated “00” on the bags and available in some supermarkets, many specialty groceries and always online) and regular all-purpose flour. As ever with breads, rise time will depend on the temperature and humidity of your kitchen and refrigerator. Our Greatest Pizza Recipes
Black Rice and Lentil Salad on Spinach
Black rice is inky, as black as squid ink, and glistens against a bed of spinach. The pigments provide anthocyanins, flavonoids that are high in antioxidants. I was inspired to cook the rice with lentils by a pilaf that I ate recently at the “Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives” conference at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. In addition to the familiar green or black lentils, I’ve thrown in uncooked split red lentils, which contribute their own soft salmon color and crunch; they are soaked for a few hours to soften them, and that’s all they need. Prepare the ingredients for the salad while the rice and lentils are cooking. The cooked rice and lentils will keep for 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator.
Bulgur and Chickpea Salad With Roasted Artichokes
Quartering and roasting the artichokes instead of steaming them whole intensifies flavor and cuts down on preparation time for this salad. My initial idea here was to stuff the artichokes with the salad and steam them. But that took a lot of time, and diminished the flavor of the salad. So I trimmed and cut the artichokes into wedges, tossed them with olive oil and roasted them. The roasted artichokes tasted so wonderful that I’ll be inclined to cook them this way from now onhereon in. They are perfect served atop or on the side of this lemony grain, chickpea and herb salad. The bulgur will keep for 4 or 5 days in the refrigerator, and can be frozen. The artichokes can be roasted several hours or even a day ahead but are best when freshly roasted.
Barley and Herb Salad With Roasted Asparagus
When fat stalks of asparagus come into the markets, what better thing to do with them than roast or grill them? What’s more, the California chef and teacher John Ash, demonstrating a recipe at the recent “Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives” conference at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley – an event that bridges health care, nutrition science and cooking – insists that not only does asparagus taste better when it’s not cooked in or near water, but also that it doesn’t cause that distinctive odor in urine many people experience after eating it. I can’t vouch for the latter claim, but asparagus is intensely delicious when you roast it And it’s a beautiful addition to this lemony mix of barley and herbs. For the herbs, I like to mix sweet (tarragon, chives) with bitter (parsley, marjoram, thyme). Cooked barley will keep for 3 days in the refrigerator and can be frozen. The dressed grains will be good for 2 to 3 days.
Grilled Sardines and Asparagus With Citrus, Chiles and Sesame
Lemon and Garlic Chicken With Cherry Tomatoes
This is a summery dish you can make any time of year since decent cherry tomatoes are available in the markets all year long. Boneless chicken breasts are marinated in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and rosemary before pounding them. This makes them very flavorful, and a great savory contrast to the sweet tomato topping.
Gluten-Free Spaghetti With Baby Broccoli, Mushrooms and Walnuts
This week I was really into adding nuts to many of my pasta dishes. They contribute substantial “meaty” texture and wonderful flavor. Baby broccoli is more elegant than regular broccoli, with long wispy florets and thin stems.
Chicken Stew With Sweet Plantains
Made on a Saturday afternoon, this accessible chicken stew (inspired by the dish mofongo) could deliver delicious Sunday sustenance from 11 a.m. onward.
3-Bean Good Luck Salad With Cumin Vinaigrette
This is a colorful variation of the black-eyed peas salad I always serve at my New Year’s Day open house. You can cook the black beans and red beans together or separately. The black-eyed peas cook more quickly so should be cooked separately.
Roast Turkey
After a successful Thanksgiving meal, guests invariably wonder why we don’t roast turkeys more often. The following months give ample opportunity to do just that. Here is a herb-roasted holiday bird stuffed with citrus and onion to provide a little zing against the fat.
Spaghetti With Broccoli and Walnut-Ricotta Pesto
This spaghetti sauce is a creamy, pungent walnut-thickened pesto that is thinned out with a small amount of cooking water from the pasta. Break up the broccoli florets so the flowers are quite small. They will absorb the sauce in the nicest way when you toss everything together.
Cod in Sweet and Sour Pepper Sauce
Vinegary sauce in which fish is marinated after cooking is sometimes referred to as escabeche. This one is inspired by a recipe in Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbook “Jerusalem.” It is at once a sauce and vegetable side dish. Instead of frying the fish like Ottolenghi does, I oven-steam it, then bury it in the sauce.